China conducts large-scale military exercise
BEIJING:
China has staged a large-scale military exercise on its east coast, state media reported, just as South Korea and the United States conduct their own major naval drill opposed by Beijing.
Artillery troops of the Nanjing Military Region, responsible for defending the nation’s eastern seaboard, conducted live ammunition exercises near the Yellow Sea, the official China News Service said.
The exercises included long-range rocket fire drills, it said in a report late on Tuesday.
The primary aim was to conduct battlefield intelligence and reconnaissance exercises using equipment such as unmanned drone aircraft and radar, it said.
The military also tested a new type of rocket-fired artillery during the exercise, other media reports said.
It was unclear whether the exercise had been pre-planned or was in response to the joint naval drill currently under way between the United States and South Korea. Nor did the reports say exactly when the Chinese exercises took place.
China has expressed concern over the July 25-28 drill, which was initially supposed to be held in the Yellow Sea separating China and the Korean peninsula but was later relocated to the Sea of Japan following Beijing’s protests.
The US-South Korean exercise is being conducted as a warning to North Korea - China’s ally - following the sinking of a South Korean warship blamed by Seoul and its allies on a North Korean submarine.
China is North Korea’s closest ally and trade partner and has refused to join international condemnation of Pyongyang for the incident.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 29th, 2010.
China has staged a large-scale military exercise on its east coast, state media reported, just as South Korea and the United States conduct their own major naval drill opposed by Beijing.
Artillery troops of the Nanjing Military Region, responsible for defending the nation’s eastern seaboard, conducted live ammunition exercises near the Yellow Sea, the official China News Service said.
The exercises included long-range rocket fire drills, it said in a report late on Tuesday.
The primary aim was to conduct battlefield intelligence and reconnaissance exercises using equipment such as unmanned drone aircraft and radar, it said.
The military also tested a new type of rocket-fired artillery during the exercise, other media reports said.
It was unclear whether the exercise had been pre-planned or was in response to the joint naval drill currently under way between the United States and South Korea. Nor did the reports say exactly when the Chinese exercises took place.
China has expressed concern over the July 25-28 drill, which was initially supposed to be held in the Yellow Sea separating China and the Korean peninsula but was later relocated to the Sea of Japan following Beijing’s protests.
The US-South Korean exercise is being conducted as a warning to North Korea - China’s ally - following the sinking of a South Korean warship blamed by Seoul and its allies on a North Korean submarine.
China is North Korea’s closest ally and trade partner and has refused to join international condemnation of Pyongyang for the incident.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 29th, 2010.